View full sizeChris Granger, The Times-PicayuneState Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek, left, and outgoing Recovery School District Superintendent Paul Vallas, right, step aside to let John White, center, walk through a doorway at Andrew H. Wilson Charter School at a news conference Friday.

It was awkward timing, coming just a day after it became clear that White will be leaving behind a troubled education department in New York City, where he has helped carry out Mayor Michael Bloomberg's education reform policies during the past five years under former school Chancellor Joel Klein.

Klein's successor, the former magazine executive Cathleen Black, lasted just three months in the job. She resigned Thursday amid public blunders, dismal poll ratings and an outcry over her lack of education credentials.

White, 35, has earned his own critics in New York, perhaps inevitably so. One of his jobs with the department, where he started in 2006, was to help decide which failing schools to close down and where to find space for new ones in an already overcrowded school system, a process that sometimes drew howling protests.

Still, he has picked up a number of endorsements among local officials as well as those involved in national education reform.

As head of the Recovery School District, White will be in charge of more than 100 underperforming schools in Louisiana, most of them in New Orleans, where his office will be based. He arrives five years after the RSD took over the majority of New Orleans public schools in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

In public remarks Friday, White paid tribute to the city and the rebuilding effort led by his predecessor, an effort that has been watched closely by education reformers across the country.

"For those of us who have been educating youngsters in other parts of the country, we wake up every day looking for glimpses of hope," White said. "And the reality is that this great city of New Orleans, for much of my career as an educator, has been a beacon of hope."

BESE approves choice 7-1

The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, or BESE, approved White's nomination without much debate on Friday, though it was not clear whether he needed the board's backing in the first place. State Superintendant of Education Paul Pastorek made no objection to the vote, but he said state law gives him the right to appoint the head of the Recovery School District directly.

In any case, White's appointment was approved 7-1, with three members abstaining. Louella Givens of New Orleans abstained along with Linda Johnson of Plaquemine and Keith Guice of Monroe. Dale Bayard of the Lake Charles area voted no.

White's credentials include a three-year stint teaching English in Jersey City, N.J., three years as the head of Teach for America's Chicago office and nearly five years in New York City. He graduated last year from the Broad Superintendents Academy, a 10-month training program for urban school leaders, and he is on track to finish a master's degree in public administration from New York University this month.

In the New York education department, White has led an overhaul of the way the district evaluates teacher performance with federal financing from President Barack Obama's Race to the Top program. He also launched a pilot program called the iZone, a network of city schools that emphasize online learning.

'A lot of animosity'

Although no BESE member criticized White's record directly, Givens offered White a stern warning that he has work to do to repair the Recovery School District's reputation in the city.

"We have a credibility problem that needs to be addressed in New Orleans immediately," she said. "There is a lot of animosity in my community toward the RSD, and I really hope that you can work to correct that issue. We're anxious to see your plans."

In a complaint that is emblematic of the mistrust that has surrounded some of the RSD's reform efforts, Givens said she was disappointed that the vote on White came in a meeting in Baton Rouge rather than New Orleans, where residents would have had more of a chance to weigh in.

"Does that get us off to a bad start? Probably so," Givens said.

Pastorek alluded several times Friday to the tensions involved in rebuilding the New Orleans school system. He's made clear that one of the most important bullet points on White's resume is his experience weathering bitter opposition to change.

Just as some parents and teachers in New York resisted the city's push toward more school choice and data-driven accountability, the transformation of most New Orleans schools into independent charters has not always been easy.

And Paul Vallas, whom Pastorek brought down from Philadelphia in 2007, hasn't always been able to convince critics that he takes community input seriously, though test grades have shown broad improvement since he started.

Pastorek said during an afternoon news conference at Andrew H. Wilson Charter School in Broadmoor that White's "proven ability to build partnerships with diverse groups and under difficult situations is crucial to my analysis."

White himself pledged to make the extra effort to hear community concerns.

"We have to listen," he said. "I commit to you that I will spend time, not just at the outset, but over the course of my tenure, listening and trying to understand how we together make this plan for our children the best plan possible."